Electric railway



No. 627,475. Patented lune 27, |899.

' W.`M. BROWN.

.ELECTRIC RAILWAY.

` 'on1edMny5, 1897) (nu Model.)4

To all, whom t 11i/ wy concern: 1

, UNITED "fSrrATnsk v PATENT j OFFICE@ j 'f "WILL1AM.Mn/ron BRo'WMroF -JoH'NsroWM Pn'rmsr.VANIA,v Ass'rcNoR, BY

MEsNE ASSIGNMENTS, 'ro 'rHE'LoRAIN STEEL COMPANY, oroHIo..

ELECTRIC SPECIFICATION forming' part of Letters Patent-.Ne 627,475, dated .rune r27, 1899.

- Applicata nea May 5. 1897. .sain No. 635,234. cro moans lBe it known that l, WILLIAM MILTON BROWN, of J ohnsiown,Cam'b`ria cou nty,Penn- Sylvania, have invented certain new and useful- Improvements in. Electric R ail\\'ays, of which the following is a specification.

My inventonrelates to that-.class ofvrail'- ways in which non-continuousor isolated conf magnet which closes said tacts lare located atabout vvthe'gijounddevel andv are l normally disconnected from the source of electric su pply, but are adapted to be connected with-said source of supply by a mentof' :inappropriate armature.

I show my invention.inconjunction-with a contact-box adapted for use with the electricrailway system invented by me and described in .Letters Patent No.',658,151, issued April 14, 1896. -I do nog-however, limit myselfto thejuse -of-'my inventionupon the particular type of .structure or"systein. shown. In all v Systemsf'of .this classthere .is danger that the armature'inay remain in .circuit with the contact .portions of the box by'becorn'in-g Welded to that portionof I theswitching mechanism against which .thel magnetic 'ield has'dfrawn -i'tt- Insome .cases this danger has beenob viaAt-e'd by supplyinga carbon contact against.

which the armature may bedrawn; but this has: sundry disadvantages:

It is the object ofthisiuvenuon to provide' means f or establishing a short circuit between thecontact-box and the other sidel of the cir-` cuit whenever the armature -welds fast, and thereby .puts the contact portion ofthe box permanently in circuit withthe source of sup-l ply; By short-circuitin v'ner a safety dev-ice, such as agfuse, which is gthe box in this manpro'videdtoopen the circuit incase of overload, will at once be opened, and n'oticevvould beat once given of -the'mishap- I Referring -tozthe drawings, Figure 1` reprejsents atransverse section,- on the line Yv Y of` Fig. 4, of a contact-box' embodying my in vention;l and Fig. 2 shows a longitudinal section ,y on the line X X of Fig.' 3, of a box, showing'a modification of 1 x'1y-invention ,4 Fig. 3 is a plan -viewof thebox shown-fin Fig. 2,*and Fig. at is a plan view of the box shown in Fig.' 1H.

The wire A,"lea'diug from .the source -of s'upcircuit bythe move-V been' filed prior vto the '.th'e current will' The modification; shown inFi-g.- 2 is ono base 4,B ainl "is secured,

l to a pedestal() within acavity inthe base.

The sealed c'upD within this cavity contains mercury, which is in directelectrical connection with the pedestal C. Floating in this 55 mercury is the ball E, made of magnetic conducting material,which is-adapted tobe drawn up against the contact F by means of a travel# ing magnet having parallel longitudinal poles adapted to straddle the contactv portion- G of 6o tthe box. G is made of non-magnetic conducting material. v

H H'represent-'the sidesof the box-cover, which are made of a magnetic conducting material.A Thus'far there isnothing new vin the appa-l rat-usdescribed, as it has beeneither shown in the aforesaid Letters Patent or in pending applications for Letters-Patent which have;

present application. 7o Referring to Fig. 1, J is va 'second cavity formed by the base and cover 0fthe box and surrounded With insulating material K. Y l.itlIin thiscavity isa bal-l L, of iron orother similar material, restingiupontw-o contacts 75 MM, one ofwhich is in direct connection with the' cover 'of the box bymeans of the wirevN 'and the vother of which is in direct connection with the groundside ofthe circuit by means Aof the .wire N'. l 8o When the'traveling magnet passes over the box, the balls E and 4L will be lifted simultaneously. VWhen vthe magnet leaves the box', the balls should drop simultaneously; but inv case b allE should' become welded to contact 85 -F by an accidental leakageof current nothing will prevent ball L from. dropping against the contact M M. The 'momentthis has happened pass through A, C, E, F, G, to the 'ground s ideof vthe circuit, `9o

N j Il, and N' and the fuse, which. is shown atf 0,'-will atv on'ce open the circuit. l A

Itis not essential to provide a fuse, as the power-house circuit-breaker.might be relied upon to open the circuit.- Itis, however, pref- 95 erable, as bysuchprovisiononly -the faulty box would-be cut out of' circuit. 'It is of course clear that some other'formoficircuitopener could beprovided instead of the-fuse,

whichl would use '.if 'I should preler to length;

en the box rather than to use the necessary width to have two balls side by side. In this case there are two auxiliary balls L and L2 placed in separate cavities J and J 2, one of which is in advance of the main switch and one in the rear thereof. Two balls are provided so as to allow the car to pass over the box in either direction. If but one ball should be provided, it is clear that when the car is passing over the box in one directionball E would be raised before the auxiliary ball,and a short circuit would be the result at a time when only harm would be caused thereby.

I do not limit myself to the exact details which I have shown and described, for it is clearly evident that my invention may be used upon railways which do not exactly resemble the one here described. It is also clear that the switch which I have shown to illustrate my invention specifically may b e altered in many wa'ys without departing outside the scope of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to protect by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination of a contact, a circuitclosing armature below said contact in connection with one side of the electric circuit and normallydisconnected from said contact,

and a second armature below said contact normally in con nection-with the opposite side of the circuit and withvthe contact.

2. An electric contact-box containing a magnetically-actuated circuit-closer between the top of the box and the source of supply in combination'with a magnetically-actuated,

and independently-movable, circuit-opener between the top of the box and the ground side of the circuit.

3. In an electric contact-box, a magnetically-actuated circuit-closer, in combination with a circuit-'opener comprising an armature .normally bridging two contacts, one of which is in direct electric connection with the contact portions of therbox, and the other of which is in direct electric connection with the opposite side of the circuit.

4. In an electric contact-box, a cavity containing a circuit-closer adapted, in its movement, to connect the contact portions of the box with one side of the electric circuit, in combination with a second cavity lined with insulating material and containing an armature normally closing thecircuit between a pair of contacts one 'of which is in connection with the contact portions of the box and the other of which is in connection with the .opposite side of the circuit.

5. In an electric contact-box, in combination, a pair of cavities, an iron ball in each of said cavities, one of said balls normally opening the circuit between the contact portion of the box and one side of the circuit` the other of said balls normally closing the circuit between the contact portion of the box and the opposite side of the circuit.

In testimony whereolhave aixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM MILTON BROWN.

Witnesses:

G. C. AUKAM, F. G. AUKAM. 

